The Invisible Hand Helps New Orleans to Rebuild
Using the Market-Initiatives to Rebuild New Orleans in an Equitable Way?
As Katrina made landfall in 2005, declarations from government officials of a “state of emergency” began to swirl amongst the first 70 mph then all the way up to the category five 175mph winds flying off the Gulf of Mexico. The destruction and devastation that followed Hurricane Katrina was beyond reparations that the federal government could handle alone. This disaster created a system that requires government funded, private subcontractors to offer support and fill in the holes the government left behind. Businesses organized to help with the relief arose at the intersection between government and citizen seized opportunities to show that the private sector could succeed where the government would fail. Neoliberal dogma explains that by allowing the free market to determine how we allocate our national resources, we will solve fiscal and social problems in the most equitable way. The free-market allows redistribution with a level of checks and balances unattainable by the government — it operates with regulatory oversight. This is disaster capitalism. This is how to get New Orleans back on its feet. Letting the market rebuild New Orleans turned the nation’s deepest sorrows into opportunities for capital investment and the reemergence of the vibrant “New Orleans” of blasting brass instruments, a bustling Bourbon Street, crawfish boil dinners, and an undeniably rhythm.
Unlike non-profit foundation such as “Make it Right,” New Orlean’s current approach to give 71 billion dollars in government funded contracts yes, removes building from the human scale and interrupts the dialogue between the low-class minorities most affected by the storm and most vital to the economy and spirit of the city; however, neoliberalism explains that this is not to the city’s detriment. Focusing on revitalizing the economy by market- penetration into more and more domains of the public sector, rebuilding happens in the most equitable way because profit motivation has no bias and no prejudice. The product is efficient trickling down of resources to those in need who deserve it.
Neoliberalism has been growing as a guiding United States principle for 50 years, but how was this realized in New Orleans and did it work? There are “hot-words” to neoliberalism and one of them is economy. Thus when New Orleans began to rebuild in the neoliberally governed 21st century, its first step in healing was to repair its economy, under the mental that its development would be the vessel that would uplift all of New Orleans.This was accomplished in two ways: tourism and branding. New Orleans was given 71 billion dollars in federal aid — a large portion of which, according to Columbia Anthropology professor that specializes in Neoliberal Urbanism, Stephen Gregory, was put towards rebuilding the french quarter in the first couple of months after the storm. The goal of this was to reestablish normalcy and return cash flow to New Orleans. Katrina made New Orleans a clean slate.
The first initiative of this clean slate was the issue of public housing. The New Orleans public housing program was in poor shape before the storms as a result of dilapidation, damage, and no money. Katrina presented an opportunity for change — a rare moment to profit from tragedy. Louisiana Congressman Richard Baker was quoted a few days after the storm as saying, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did it.” Katrina induced damages coupled with pressure to redevelop public housing projects — which had been 100 percent black — into upscale neighborhoods led the Housing Urban Development (HUD) to authorize the demolition of 4,500 public housing apartments that concentrated much of the city’s poverty. Four public housing structures were exploded with dynamite despite the fact that they were modestly scaled, community-friendly, new deal, well built structures.
Although the public housing destruction mostly affected low-income African American residents, Tim Fleet, New Orleans downtown commercial developer said, “it was the product the city in a time of catastrophe looking at itself and asking am I leading the life I am supposed to lead.” He continued, “It is post-Katrina projects like that that allowed us to refocus and rebuild in a way that would benefit everyone. We had to realize something and that was, to revive NOLA [New Orleans, Louisiana] we needed to make it into a kind of entertainment machine that not only draws in people, but also captivates residents.”
Sustainability on this market-oriented spectrum is focused economic growth.Tourism introduces a stable, reliable economy that can never be completely razed because it is a product one creates; no storm can subvert that. The neoliberal camp suggests that tourism and the brand of NOLA are more worth protecting more than the invisible substandard housing community because the brand is like an apex predator — nothing, not even category five Hurricane Katrina will bring it down.
Not only are tourism and branding objects of total-resilience, they can also equalizers of social issues and environmental issues. Take New Orlean’s waterfront redevelopment project, Crescent Park for example. This single walk along the Bywater attracts tourists that attract growth in many sectors — mom and pop restaurants, small goods vendors, create a market for bikes, and much more. Not only does this stimulate economic growth for local businesses, but it provides a classless and raceless space where all of New Orleans can mingle and reestablish its community. The final benefit allowed by this single piece of developed infrastructure are environmental benefits by providing another buffer between the city and the water.
The New Orleans of 2016 the product of a market-driven recovery plan instead of community-driven recovery. Although this plan places unequal burdens on poor minorities at its genesis, neoliberalism promises this will change with time. Promoting tourism as the crux to a resillient city is a boat that will lift all tides — even the ones that climate change will inevitably heighten. So as they say in the French Quarter: laissez les bons temps roule, let the good time roll.
